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  • Location: Moscow , Lubeck, Rome, Riga, Florence, Naples

The Devil’s Library

The Devil’s Library

Why a Booktrail?

1500s: Can a library ever prove to be dangerous to mankind?

  • ISBN: 978-1909979390
  • Genre: Fiction, Folklore, Historical, Spy story, Thriller

What you need to know before your trail

Mathew Longstaff has heard about The Otiosi – they are a group of scholars with an eccentric interest in the works of antiquity. They get in touch and ask him  to travel east and recover a lost text from Ivan the Terrible’s private library, he jumps at the chance.

But the Otiosi are on the trail of a greater prize than Longstaff realises – the legendary ‘Devil’s Library’. And they are not the only ones – there are other groups, religious groups who are interested in the books for their own ends.

Gregorio Spina, the Pope’s spymaster and Chief Censor, is obsessed with finding  it as he believes that God has placed a treasure, a weapon to defeat the Antichrist and pitch his hordes back into hell.

Can Longstaff, together with the unpredictable physician, Gaetan Durant, stop Spina using the Library to plunge Europe into a second Dark Ages.?

And what is this library that everyone seeks?

Travel Guide

Italy Rome

Rome and the Vatican city are at the centre of this book and the search for The Devil’s Library. the city is ideal for such an historical, religious story with the search for a library. Old relics and history are buried here and have been since the beginning of time. The Pope sits in Vatican City, a country in itself with its own vast library and treasures. This is where the search for the books starts and where it might well end – if the books are discovered, they could change the face of religion and christianity for ever.

“Rome was a city of ruins ancient squares colonised by scavenger pigs, beggars sleeping on beds of cracked marble. Schoff ignored them, hardy looking left or right until he reached St Peter’s. The great square rang to the sound of the stonemason’s hammers. Not yet finished, the new basilica was already more of a wonder that Schoff had dreamed”

Germany – Lucbeck – Museum Holstentor

Trying to save his father’s reputation and his own, and so to have the chance to return to England, he agrees to work with Spina and the Otosi to try and get to the truth, he is in Lubeck as he regulary sends  Spina updates on his research. He meets Durant in the library in the city

Livonia (Baltic Region)

Back in the 12th century, Livonia was an area of economic and political interest with the Danes and Germans, The Hanseatic League and the Cistercian Order in particular was very interested in the area and many from Lübeck established a trading post on the site of the future city of Riga.

Italy – Florence

The journey takes them to Florence and the libraries there. This is a city where there are still public hangings here but amidst the dangers and the poverty, there is s  strong sense of renaissance paintings and treasures. The Bargello National Museum is a 13th century palace and is one of the places featured and this art museum with Renaissance sculptures including works by Michelangelo.

England – which has a link to the story throughout – as Martlesham in Suffolk is where Schoff and his father were from.

Booktrailer Review

Susan @thebooktrailer

A clever novel this  – and all about a devil’s library! Well that was me convinced right away.

What a story and journey! From the libraries and vaults of the Kremlin, the state of Livonia in the Baltic region, Germany and then Italy…this is one booktrail and then some!

At each point along the way there is a rich drawing of historical detail and intrigue resulting in that historical thread which has already woven through each and every page, forming a whole and very detailed tapestry of history, books and intrigue.

It will probably get compared to Dan Brown but this is much more detailed and richer for my likening and the fact there was a great deal of bookish history as well as religious intrigue really got me enthralled.

The characters were also some of the moodiest and dark I’d read about in a novel of this sort. Longstaff and Durant were a great team and as I moved from one city to another I was always keen to get back to either one of these two. There was just fascinatingly complex about the pair of them and the way they had to work in the shadows on what was a very shadowy investigation. There were so many rocks to overturn, and nooks in walls to investigate that  I was in awe at the detail  of their task and their intelligence of how they went about solving it. Hidden shadows followed them throughout too. A brilliantly plotted challenge with a very satisfying ending

Renaissance Europe and its literary treasures in the hands of Tom Pugh –  put down the book you are reading and pick this one up. Wear white gloves and treat it with care as you can’t be sure of the history you’re about to unleash…

Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Devil’s Library

Author/Guide: Tom Pugh    Destination: Moscow, Lubeck, Rome, Riga, Florence,  Departure Time: 1550s onwards

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